Tuesday, July 17, 2012

I don’t know about you but when I am putting a block together I like to lay out all the pieces before I join them together…to check colours and the balance (can’t thing of the right word!) of the block.

I wanted a way to get the fabric from my cutting table to my sewing machine with out messing them up…

Say hello to Orlando! Isn’t he cute?!

I bought this canvas from the cheapie shop and no, not because I have a thing for Orlando! Although….only kidding!

This is the canvas now. With wadding and a staple gun you can do marvellous things!

I simply wrapped the wadding over the edges of the canvas and stapled it down at the back…

The best thing is the fabric sticks so well, I can tip it upside down and swing it around too! Why you would want to do that I don’t know but it was a great test!

My board is 14” x 20” and I used cotton wadding with a layer of poly wadding underneath mainly so I couldn’t see Orlando peeking through!

The wadding came from my scrap wadding box so this was a really cheap project! And you have to love that!

I tried fussy cutting and it looked perfect before I pieced it….anyway it looks great with the other blocks.

Recently the group had a Handmade Swap. And I made a sewing caddy for Tracey…

There was a pair of stork scissors that went in the caddy too.

I used some Ruby and some Make Life… I especially love the twill tape measure!

And I got this awesome package from Marieka…

She got me so well! My fav block, my fav colours and chocolates!!! There is a cushion cover and a zipper pouch, which I have already been using to keep some hand sewing together! Thank you Marieka, I love it!

And then there is the Novelty Fabric Swap…

We are swapping 5” squares of novelty fabric, I am hoping I might be able to make an I Spy quilt for the boys.

These are my fabrics – the Monkeys are an Ann Kellie print and the Trains are from my stash and I can’t remember the details.

Lastly, I think LOL! Is Sasha – The Travelling Stash!

This amazing amount of stashy goodness fits in a 3kg post satchel!

What I took out is on the left and what I put in is on the right….I had to put in a pack of of the Clover Quilting Clips, they are one of my fav stash items!

Saturday, July 7, 2012

Well I can now reveal what we have on offer! We are very excited that the Fat Quarter Shop have offered to be our sponsor for the quilt along, and they're giving seven gift certificates to seven lucky people!

There are 3 of these -

And 4 of these -

Wow! That is awesome for you guys who are going to play along!

There will be three categories in which you can enter and prizes will be drawn at the completion of the QAL.

The main category will be for those who complete the Full Twin Sized quilt (65" x 80"). There will be TWO prizes of a $50 gift certificate for the Fat Quarter Shop, and one prize of a $25 gift certificate.

2. Throw Quilt (45" x 50") - 2 Prizes

There will be one $50 voucher, and one $25 voucher in this category.

3. Mini Quilt or other quilted item - 2 Prizes

There will be two $25 vouchers in this category.

That is some major motivation! If I wasn’t hosting I would be in for sure!

Also, I have added a page up the top called How far will you go? QAL (can you see it up there?) I will link back to all the posts on that page, so if you have missed something that is where you can find it!

And we would really love it if you could help spread the word, you can use the QAL logo (above) as a blog button and link it back to either of our blogs or do a post on your blog (if you have one) to let all your friends know what we are doing!

Thursday, July 5, 2012

I am super excited to announce that myself and Jess of The Elven Garden will be co-hosting a Quilt Along together, starting on Friday 27th of July.

We would be stoked if anyone would like to join us - we're pretty proud of what we've come up with. Plus there will be prizes! The Fat Quarter Shop have very generously offered to be our sole sponsor for this - we'll be revealing prize details in the next week!

So what is the How Far Will You Go? QAL (maybe HFWYGQAL for short LOL )

Earlier this year Jess mentioned to me that she would like to do a QAL, and I said how about doing one together? So we started planning. I came up with a pretty nice layout for it, and we've been nailing the details over the last few months (getting confusing with the Jess's everwhere?)

It is a sampler style quilt with three different block sizes, and a total of 18 different blocks, so we're hoping it will be a bit of a skill builder as well. The quilt that we'll be making will look something like this, finishing at about 65" x 80":

But as you can see it would be open to mix and match blocks around - so you could do more of some and less of others as you choose! We are also giving the option of making a smaller quilt or quilted item. For example, a 30" mini quilt or a 45" x 50" throw quilt. There will be prizes for each of the three categories, so if you're time poor you can make something small and still enter to win!

So the nitty gritty stuff. This QAL will run over 24 weeks. Yep, nearly 6 months! We will be presenting one tutorial each week, alternating between the two of us who does the tutorial. Then there will be a few weeks for finishing up blocks, quilting and binding - so we're giving you (and us!!) time to get it all done.

TUTORIAL PLAN:

The order for tutorials will be as follows:

Week 1: Susannah (10”) – 2 blocks

Week 2: Weathervane (10”) – 1 block

Week 3: Pieced star (10”) – 3 blocks

Week 4: St Louis Star (10”) – 1 block

Week 5: Jack in the box (10”) – 2 blocks

Week 6: Windblown Square (10”) – 3 blocks

Week 7: Another star (10”) – 1 block

Week 8: See Saw (5”) – 4 blocks

Week 9: Dutch Rose (20”) – 1 block

Week 10: Clay’s choice (10”) – 2 blocks

Week 11: Tippencanoe (5”) – 4 blocks

Week 12: Tassel Flower (20”) – 1 block

Week 13: Crazy Ann (10”) – 2 blocks

Week 14: Farmer’s Daughter (10”) – 1 block

Week 15: Pinwheel skew (5”) – 2 blocks

Week 16: Wandering Foot (20”) – 1 block

Week 17: Rolling Pinwheel (20”) – 1 block

Week 18: Hayes Corner (10”) – 1 block

At the conclusion of the series of tutorials, we will have a two week break to allow participants to catch up on making all of the blocks.

Week 20: Piecing your quilt top together.

Week 21: Ideas for quilting (with two weeks given for finishing the quilting)

Week 23: Binding your quilt.

Week 24: Link up your finished quilt.

Week 25: Prize winners announced.

The prize winners will be randomly selected from all entries.

FABRIC REQUIREMENTS:

I have drawn up the quilt layout using Electric Quilt 7, so we have a fabric requirement guide for the largest quilt size.

Background fabric - 3 yards

Inner border fabric - 1/2 yard

Outer border fabric - 1 5/8 yards

Blocks - a total of about 5 yards of fabric (ie 20 fat quarters, or 10 half-yards or a combination)

Jess will be using her stash of Heirloom by Joel Dewberry for her version – I am using Ruby along with some FMF with Bella Feather for the background.

FLICKR GROUP:

We've started up a Flickr group for you all to share your fabric choices and progress as we make the blocks. We'll also update the Flickr discussions as new tutorials become available.